Death Penalty
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Crime, Death Penalty
Criminally Yours: How Do You Judge Who's An 'Idiot'?
A life-or-death issue. What standard should be used, and based on what criteria? -
Death Penalty
Supreme Court Justices, Wrongful Convictions, And The Death Penalty
When future Supreme Court justices take a stand against wrongful convictions. - Sponsored
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 07.05.16
* Tips from a Biglaw partner on balancing work and motherhood. [Big Law Business]
* But not everyone thinks that Biglaw is conducive to balancing family life with work. [Law and More]
* Which attorneys were most victorious at oral argument in front of the Supreme Court this Term? [Empirical SCOTUS]
* Legal pot growers have a looming battle with the IRS. [Slate]
* Is now the time to end the death penalty? [Guile is Good]
* RIP, Judge Abner Mikva, whose career also included work as a U.S. congressman from Illinois, White House counsel to President Bill Clinton, and mentor to Barack Obama. He died this 4th of July. [Washington Post]
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 07.01.16
Ed. note: In observance of the Fourth of July, Above the Law will not be publishing on Monday. Have a great weekend!
* The little known religious history behind America’s seal. Separation of church and state be damned. [Wall Street Journal]
* Fireworks are super pretty to look at, but dangerous. So be careful out there. [Southeast Missourian]
* 5 prosecutors are responsible for 440 death sentences. That is incredibly disturbing. [The Guardian]
* U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves blocked a Mississippi law that would allow those with religious objections to deny wedding services to gay couples. Good to see the concept of precedent in action. [Reuters]
* Republican delegates can do… pretty much whatever they want to. It is a political issue, not a legal one. [Huffington Post]
* It is shockingly easy for the government to spy on journalists. [The Intercept]
* Lawyer that sued Led Zeppelin is suspended. [MSN]
* Donald Trump is definitely coming to Pennsylvania Avenue (he’s building a hotel there). [Denver Channel]
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 06.10.16
* Lawsuits matter: in the wake of the $140 million verdict against it in the Hulk Hogan sex tape case, Gawker Media is filing for bankruptcy and putting itself up for sale. [Gawker]
* Declaratory judgment: according to Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Judging Statutes (affiliate link), by fellow feeder judge Robert Katzmann, is “a pleasure to read,” “succinct,” and “educational.” [Harvard Law Review]
* SCOTUS sez: a judge shouldn’t hear an appeal in a death penalty case that he worked on as a prosecutor. [How Appealing]
* Speaking of the Supreme Court, Gabe Roth of Fix the Court makes the case in favor of mandatory retirement for the justices. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
* Worst fellow airplane passenger ever (yes, even worse than the drunken law firm partner). [U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit]
* 9 “Musts” for Privacy & Data Security Risk Management and Compliance. [Legaltech News]
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Death Penalty, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Securing The Death Penalty Is Part Of Obama's Legacy
Has Obama nominated three "pro-death" justices? -
Death Penalty, Public Interest
Connecticut Supreme Court Reaffirms Death Penalty’s Demise
Which state court of last resort will be the first to follow the Connecticut Supreme Court’s lead on the death penalty? -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 05.26.16
* Did you know Virginia allows people with only a bachelor’s degree to be magistrates? And they are the ones approving search warrants. [Katz on Justice]
* Domino’s Pizza is the latest target of Eric Schneiderman, and the pizza chain is accused of discounting the hours employees have worked. [Pacific Standard Magazine]
* One way to avoid law firm layoffs is to totally restructure the way law firms operate. [Bloomberg BNA]
* What does one do when they retire from the Supreme Court? [SCOTUSblog]
* How much do Supreme Court justices interrupt each other? An interesting analysis. [Empirical SCOTUS]
* The Baston rule and the integrity of the criminal justice system. [Slate]
* The repeal of Connecticut’s death penalty will now apply to the men currently on death row. [Huffington Post]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 05.25.16
* Sorry to ruin your childhood, but a Pennsylvania judge found that there is enough evidence for Bill Cosby to stand trial for his felony assault charge in the Andrea Constand case. Cosby has waived his right to a formal arraignment, and could face up to 10 years in prison if he’s convicted. Cosby has been free on $1 million bail since December. [Associated Press]
* “You need to have order in a courtroom. And there needs to be proper decorum with attorneys.” A Las Vegas Justice of the Peace ordered that a deputy public defender be handcuffed for interrupting him as she tried to represent a client. A tipster has referred to this judge as “demented.” We may have more on this. [Las Vegas Review-Journal]
* According to inside sources, Hunton & Williams is in advanced merger talks with Addelshaw Goddard, a London-based firm. These talks have reportedly been going on for months, and Addelshaw partners supposedly met last night to discuss the tie-up. If successful, the combined firm would have more than 1,300 lawyers. [Big Law Business]
* Silicon Valley staple Fenwick & West is opening up an office outpost in New York City. The firm’s clients in Manhattan include BuzzFeed, FanDuel, Blackrock, Citi, and JPMorgan. Associates will be working around the clock in the city that never sleeps — with a roster like that, they won’t be getting shuteye anytime soon. [WSJ Law Blog]
* AG Loretta Lynch announced yesterday afternoon that the Justice Department would be seeking the death penalty against Dylann Roof, the suspect alleged to have gone on a shooting spree in a Charleston church last summer, killing nine and wounding numerous others. It’s said Roof hoped to incite a race war as a result of the massacre. [USA Today]
* Carl Buchholz, managing partner of DLA Piper’s Philadelphia office, RIP. [Philadelphia Business Journal]
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Public Interest
Louisiana Legislature Attempting To Cure What Ails Public Defenders
This bill may restore basic public-defender services in Louisiana while increasing support for abolishing the death penalty. -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 05.06.16
* Are vacancies on the federal judiciary causing a crisis in North Carolina? It does have the longest-running hole on the federal bench. [Raleigh News Observer]
* Jodi Arias is planning a wedding from prison. I don’t know you guys, I think those crazy kids might just make it. [Law and More]
* If racism and the death penalty can never be separated, is the only just move to eliminate the death penalty? [Slate]
* More revelations in the stomach-turning Sandusky case. Who at Penn State knew what when? [Lawyers, Guns and Money]
* An analysis of cases where federal clemency has been granted that identifies trends in President Obama’s decisions. [LinkedIn]
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Trivia Question of the Day
Clarence Darrow's 12-Hour Closing Argument
The key to this trivia question about Clarence Darrow? The answer has nothing to do with the Scopes Monkey Trial. -
Crime
10-Year-Old Obliterates Criminal Justice System In 30 Seconds
Little kid knows his way around the criminal justice crisis.
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Crime, Death Penalty
Criminally Yours: Killing The Intellectually Disabled
When it comes to eligibility for the death penalty, states still disagree on what qualifies as making a person intellectually disabled. -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 01.29.16
* Five years later, and one of them enrolled at Yale Law, the kids of Tiger Mom, Amy Chua, plan to raise their own children the same way. [Today]
* Rome self-censors for a state visit from Iranian president Hassan Rouhani. How, exactly, was this a good idea? [Popehat]
* Should the ABA change accreditation standards to prevent students with little chance of actually passing the bar examination from attending law school in the first place? [TaxProf Blog]
* Missouri paid its executioners $250,000 in cash. That doesn’t seem shady AT ALL. [BuzzFeed]
* The whole Ammon Bundy debacle is teaching people damn the consequences. [Lawyers, Guns and Money]
* If you need to scale a courthouse in order to get a selfie with lady liberty, just don’t do it, you could wind up in jail. [KWTX]
* What does Rudy Giuliani really think about Preet Bharara? Plus why he loves being a lawyer. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=9yGt3MF4Sn4
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.29.16
* “This is, since the recession, the most robust job growth we’ve seen.” Nearly all students who worked at Biglaw firms this past summer as associates received offers of full-time employment. Offer rates haven’t been this high in more than a decade. [National Law Journal]
* Mommy, wow! I’m a big kid now! Affluenza teen Ethan Couch was finally deported from Mexico and booked into a juvenile detention center. Today, we’ll see if he’ll be moved to a big-boy jail, and in February, we’ll see if his case is moved to the grown-up court system. [Associated Press]
* Sorry, Hillary Clinton, but President Obama has no desire to be on SCOTUS. According to White House press secretary Josh Earnest, while Obama “would have plenty of ideas for how he would do a job like that,” he “may have other things to do.” [The Hill]
* It’s so hard to get execution drugs that Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is asking state legislators for alternative methods for carrying out death sentences, like death by firing squad, electrocution, and hanging. Seems reasonable? [Reuters]
* Arizona is so eager to kill people it hired Alston & Bird to go up against the Food and Drug Administration in the state’s quest to obtain the release of a shipment of execution drugs that it had imported to the country from India this summer. [BuzzFeed News]
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Crime, Prisons, White-Collar Crime
The Yale Law Journal And Solitary Confinement
With all the focus on the death penalty, another evil of the prison system is getting glossed over. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.19.16
* The New York Times editorial board believes SCOTUS justices “already have all the evidence they need to join the rest of the civilized world and end the death penalty once and for all” — and they may get the chance to do so this Term (but won’t). [New York Times]
* A Texas lawyer has filed the first “birther” lawsuit against Republican candidate Ted Cruz, seeking a declaratory judgment that the Canadian-born senator isn’t eligible to run for president. The filing is a pretty entertaining read in that it’s completely insane. [KHOU 11 News]
* Just when ex-Dewey & LeBoeuf chair Steven Davis thought his legal troubles were over, Citibank swooped in to slap him with a suit seeking repayment of a $400,000 loan for his capital contribution to the failed firm. [New York Law Journal via ABA Journal]
* The U.S. Copyright Office has formed an academic partnership with George Mason University School of Law. We bet students and law school administrators alike are probably hoping it’ll turn into an employment partnership as well. [IP Watchdog]
* Lower-ranked law schools ought to thank their lucky stars that U.S. News “ranking competition” exists, because if not for fear they’d sink in the rankings, higher-ranked schools would’ve enrolled students typically bound for unranked schools. [Forbes]
* Not only has Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s first bid to get a new trial been rejected, but in what’s been called a “symbolic gesture,” the convicted Boston Marathon bomber has now been ordered to pay more than $101 million in restitution to his victims. [Boston Globe]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.14.16
* If you were a Biglaw partner at a troubled firm who managed to escape before the sh*t really hit the fan, and you now feel bad for those you left behind, don’t worry. We know you might not be familiar with emotions, but “[i]t’s a legitimate human feeling.” [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]
* Just when you thought Ted Cruz was eligible to run for president, some renowned legal scholars have crawled out of the woodwork to state the complete opposite — and some have even published law review articles about it. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Those contract attorneys who sued for overtime pay at their doc review jobs made an impact, but it might not have been the kind they were hoping for. Many law firms and staffing agencies have stopped offering overtime work at all. [New York Law Journal]
* Florida’s death row inmates are stuck in legal limbo now that SCOTUS invalidated the state’s capital punishment sentencing regime as unconstitutional. Maybe the state where people go to die should consider repealing its death penalty altogether. [Reuters]
* Oh my God (but not his): An atheist lawyer is suing to remove the phrase “In God We Trust” from all U.S. currency because he says it violates the separation between church and state. He’s filed God-related lawsuits in the past, and lost them all. [Cleveland.com]
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Death Penalty
Supreme Court Rules That Flori-duh Can’t Even Kill People Correctly
Here's another constitutional argument against the death penalty.